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When
noncustodial
parents
don't
support
their
children,
taxpayers
get the bill
for their
financial
and medical
support.
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MAIL ORDER
BRIDE
Mail-order bride
is a label applied to a woman who is advertised in
catalogs and internet for marriage to men
from another - usually more financially developed —
country. This label is considered offensive by some
definitions.
Mail-order brides traditionally hail from developing
countries. The great majority of these women are
from Southeast Asia including the Philippines,
countries of the former Soviet Union, and to a
lesser extent from Latin America. Since the collapse
of the Soviet Union, large numbers of eastern
European women advertised themselves in such a way;
primarily being from Russia, Romania, Ukraine and
Moldova. Even developed nations like Japan, Canada,
and Sweden have large amounts of outgoing mail order
brides. In the past, international marriage agencies
such as Cherry Blossoms allowed women to sign up to
be listed in picture magazines; now the Internet has
largely supplanted this method. Nations that often
receive mail-order brides are the United States,
Canada, United Kingdom, South Korea, Taiwan,
Singapore, Germany, and Australia.
OVERVIEW
There is nothing new
about the concept of arranged marriages. It is as
old as the institute of marriage itself. Various
cultures around the world, including European, have
at one time or another advocated an arrangement
marriage. The arrangement is made through direct
agreement between parents at children's birth or
through the medium of a match-maker.
It is within the last
century that the "mail-order bride" became a part of
the American lexicon. Settlers were moving west,
where traditionally men outnumbered the women in the
population. Men would correspond with
marriage-minded women "back East," become engaged
and either marry their brides by proxy or marry
immediately upon the bride's arrival to her new
home.
Within the last
twenty-five years this practice revived, involving
Asian and Latin nations, and with the collapse of
the Soviet Empire a new market has opened up to
Western men.
Increasingly, western
men are turning to marriage agencies or introduction
services to find spouses from the former Soviet
Union. In an industry that was traditionally
dominated by agencies in the Pacific Rim, the new
breed of Russian Internet marriage agencies is
rapidly expanding and overtaking the market. The
hundreds of different agencies on the Internet that
focus on women from Russia and other Soviet
Republics. The popularity of these companies is due
to various factors that include culture and
economics.
ISSUES
There is an element of
risk for either marriage partner entering in to such
union. Both parties are in extremely vulnerable
situations. The bride is isolated in a new foreign
country, usually unable to speak the language,
initially at the mercy of their
husbands, and often is
more vulnerable to domestic abuse. The groom takes
the risk that his new wife is just using him for
permanent residency status. The whole concept of
mail-order brides raises questions itself. Can two
people fall in love enough to marry without ever
having met? This case proposes to examine this new
player in a very old industry, its impact on this
market and the legalities involved.
Deadbeat
husbands, mail order brides issues, divorce,
children, alimony issues.
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